A US group is opening central London’s first large-scale private hospital in four decades as it makes a £1bn push into UK paid-for healthcare.
Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic is launching its first UK medical centre in an eight-storey, 325,000 sq ft building that overlooks Buckingham Palace in the wealthy neighbourhood of Belgravia. It will be the biggest private hospital in central London after the 206-bed HCA-owned Wellington when it opens on Tuesday.
Cleveland Clinic London will focus on cardiovascular, digestive, neurological and orthopaedic care and aims to partner with the NHS to cut waiting lists and help with the UK’s post-Covid recovery plan. Facilities at the hospital include a pharmacy robot that individually wraps medicine for each patient, tracking it with a barcode to improve efficiency and limit wastage.
The clinic’s eight operating theatres will expand capacity in central London by 9 per cent, while its 184 inpatient beds will add 14 per cent to capacity. Its 29 intensive care beds mean an increase of 28 per cent.
“In a flat market, those are big numbers,” said Ted Townsend, an analyst at healthcare consultancy LaingBuisson. “It’s a big question how they’re going to fill their beds.”
Before Covid-19, the number of private patients being treated in London had shown little growth, he added. He also pointed to concerns about whether international patients, who accounted for about 15 per cent of the capital’s private healthcare revenues, will return to the same extent as before the pandemic.
Brian Donley, who joined the US healthcare group in 1996 as a full-time surgeon and is now chief executive of Cleveland Clinic London, remained upbeat, however: “The demand for quality healthcare is there.”
It is banking on insured or self-funding patients, mostly from the UK. Some will come via the NHS while it estimates about a tenth will be from abroad.
Cleveland has hired 1,139 caregivers to staff the hospital, including 270 doctors and 450 nurses, many of whom will also work for the NHS.
The company has broken with UK tradition by following the US practice of employing consultants on fixed salaries for their private, non-NHS work. Typically doctors are employed by the state-funded health service and work elsewhere when not on shift on a fee-for-service basis.
Cleveland, which has 22 hospitals and 226 outpatient facilities worldwide, said this would promote continuity of care, teamwork and good practice.
“Usually in private medicine, the consultants are king,” Townsend said. “Being able to choose their own consultant is often the number one reason why patients go private.”
This is a “strong challenge to the existing private hospital business and, if nothing else, it transfers the financial risk of finding patients from the consultant to the hospital”, he added.
The clinic signed a 123-year lease on the building, kept the imposing white facade and demolished the rest before beginning construction in 2018. Some analysts suggest the US group has invested as much as £1.3bn on the venture but the clinic declined to confirm that figure.
The hospital in central London will be supported by the clinic’s outpatient centre, opened last year, near Oxford Circus. The most recent significant new-build hospital was the 121-bed, HCA-owned London Bridge Hospital in 1986.
It’s not a bet if the odds are being stacked in their favour
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A US group is opening central London’s first large-scale private hospital in four decades as it makes a £1bn push into UK paid-for healthcare.
Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic is launching its first UK medical centre in an eight-storey, 325,000 sq ft building that overlooks Buckingham Palace in the wealthy neighbourhood of Belgravia. It will be the biggest private hospital in central London after the 206-bed HCA-owned Wellington when it opens on Tuesday.
Cleveland Clinic London will focus on cardiovascular, digestive, neurological and orthopaedic care and aims to partner with the NHS to cut waiting lists and help with the UK’s post-Covid recovery plan. Facilities at the hospital include a pharmacy robot that individually wraps medicine for each patient, tracking it with a barcode to improve efficiency and limit wastage.
The clinic’s eight operating theatres will expand capacity in central London by 9 per cent, while its 184 inpatient beds will add 14 per cent to capacity. Its 29 intensive care beds mean an increase of 28 per cent.
“In a flat market, those are big numbers,” said Ted Townsend, an analyst at healthcare consultancy LaingBuisson. “It’s a big question how they’re going to fill their beds.”
Before Covid-19, the number of private patients being treated in London had shown little growth, he added. He also pointed to concerns about whether international patients, who accounted for about 15 per cent of the capital’s private healthcare revenues, will return to the same extent as before the pandemic.
Brian Donley, who joined the US healthcare group in 1996 as a full-time surgeon and is now chief executive of Cleveland Clinic London, remained upbeat, however: “The demand for quality healthcare is there.”
It is banking on insured or self-funding patients, mostly from the UK. Some will come via the NHS while it estimates about a tenth will be from abroad.
Cleveland has hired 1,139 caregivers to staff the hospital, including 270 doctors and 450 nurses, many of whom will also work for the NHS.
The company has broken with UK tradition by following the US practice of employing consultants on fixed salaries for their private, non-NHS work. Typically doctors are employed by the state-funded health service and work elsewhere when not on shift on a fee-for-service basis.
Cleveland, which has 22 hospitals and 226 outpatient facilities worldwide, said this would promote continuity of care, teamwork and good practice.
“Usually in private medicine, the consultants are king,” Townsend said. “Being able to choose their own consultant is often the number one reason why patients go private.”
This is a “strong challenge to the existing private hospital business and, if nothing else, it transfers the financial risk of finding patients from the consultant to the hospital”, he added.
The clinic signed a 123-year lease on the building, kept the imposing white facade and demolished the rest before beginning construction in 2018. Some analysts suggest the US group has invested as much as £1.3bn on the venture but the clinic declined to confirm that figure.
The hospital in central London will be supported by the clinic’s outpatient centre, opened last year, near Oxford Circus. The most recent significant new-build hospital was the 121-bed, HCA-owned London Bridge Hospital in 1986.
It’s not a bet if the odds are being stacked in their favour